Breaking: Portsmouth boss John Mousinho addresses reported interest in former Leeds and Hull man

The 32-year-old is available on a free transfer after leaving Leeds at the end of the season following 10 seasons at Elland Road.

With the Blues seeking to strengthen their squad, they were yesterday linked with a move for the central defender by TEAMtalk.

However, speaking this afternoon ahead of Pompey’s Tuesday night Carabao Cup clash with Millwall, Mousinho was adamant Cooper is not on their radar.

He told The News: ‘There’s nothing in that.

‘Liam is a fantastic player with massive Premier League pedigree, but, as far as we are concerned, that’s not one we have been looking at at all.’

Although Cooper is not a target, the Blues are still keen to strengthen the centre of their defence.

Tom McIntyre remains injured, while Regan Poole is continuing his recovery from an ACL injury and is not yet back in full training.

It means Mousinho cannot rotate his central defenders for tomorrow night’s clash with Millwall (7.45pm), with Conor Shaughnessy and Ryley Towler to keep their places.

Mousinho added: ‘We haven’t missed out on (signing) any centre-halves, it’s just the ones we are looking at haven’t become available yet.

‘We’ve got plenty we are still in discussion with towards the back end, but it has been really slow with the way the market has gone.

‘There are plenty of options we have from teams who are just not ready to release players yet - whether that’s on loan or whether that’s permanently - and a lot of that will come to fruition at the back end of August.

‘We need to be patient on that and for us it’s about waiting for the right one to come along rather than rushing anything.

‘If we make sure we get through these four league games in August and into a really strong position by the time we hit that international break, by the time the transfer window does close, we can have the squad we want rather than the squad we rushed in to get.’